Wednesday, 17 October 2018

Failing Hard Drive

Computers are a delight to many. They allow us to do a lot of things at the same time without even leaving our seats. Can you imagine living life without them? It has been decades since computers were still a rarity. Back then, things were still done manually and it had its pros and cons. Things were probably simpler. You don’t need to learn a lot of things at once but it took more time and effort in finishing up tasks. But with the advent of modern computing, things that will take ages to do and finish can now be done in a snap and the best thing about all these technological advancements is that we can now connect to the world at large with just a click of a button.

Things can be done in real time and it has opened up opportunities that never existed back then. You can even work from the comfort of your own homes and still earn more than the average worker out there. As wonderful as it may seem, technology has a major drawback and it has bane of our existence for the longest time too. Hardwares don’t last forever. They work smoothly and efficiently when the device is still new but wear and tear can result in problems like a failing hard drive that can cost you so much money and a lot of headaches too.

You know the feeling: Your once-snappy Windows laptop now takes ages to do simple things such as opening folders and saving files, leaving you wondering what’s going on.

What can you do?

There are many reasons a laptop may suddenly slow down, including lack of memory and the presence of computer viruses, or malware. So there’s no single answer to that question.

“If the memory or storage space is taxed, it can result in a slowdown in performance,” says Antonette Asedillo, who oversees computer testing for Consumer Reports. There’s also a new type of malware that hijacks your computer to generate cryptocurrency without your knowledge or consent.

Not only are failing hard drives a big pain but it can also affect your work especially when you have a regular work schedule to follow or deadlines to meet. You won’t be able to fully use your device if its hard drive is already failing. It takes a long time for programs to open and you may experience files disappearing all of a sudden. It can stress you out especially if you haven’t backed up your data yet. Add to that the pressure of you needing to submit it but it suddenly disappears on you. The only silver lining here is that your hard drive does not go bad all of a sudden. There are warning signs to be wary of, so better familiarize yourself as to what they are to help you act on the problem before your hard drive completely falters.

Strange Sounds

When you hear strange noises coming from your hard drive, it may be too late already. A repetitive sound also known as the click of death is caused by the head as it is trying to write data and recovers from errors in doing so. Grinding or screeching noises indicate that parts of the hardware, for example the bearings or spindle motor, are failing.

S.M.A.R.T. Data

There are tools that aim to predict hard drive failure by reading the S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) data that is recorded by the operating system. Unfortunately, like most other methods listed above, S.M.A.R.T. is notoriously unreliable in predicting hard drive failure and the catastrophe will often happen before the warning of S.M.A.R.T. kicks in. If you have a working hard drive, however, and would like to have a look at its S.M.A.R.T. data, check out our article on tools to predict and prevent hard drive failure.

Knowing that your hard drive is quite fragile will teach you to become more careful in handling it and ensuring it is taken cared of and not abused all the time. These tech parts have a specific shelf life but they can lengthen or shorten depending on how it is used. If you want to make the most of your device and the money you paid for it, learn what the common failing hard drive problems are such as https://www.harddriverecovery.org/errors/disk_read_error.html and https://www.harddriverecovery.org/repair-hard-drive.html, so you can act on them as soon as you notice it happening to your device. Your computer can only take so much, so help it do its job so your life is still as comfortable and efficient with its help. It is inevitable for it to break over time but with proper use, some computers can last far longer than that of average users.

The following blog article Failing Hard Drive was initially published on www.harddriverecovery.org